"Will Mick recognize himself?" Savannah was curious.

"No," Emily said. "You describe a character on the pages of your manuscript, and you see him or her one way, but every reader sees them a little differently. Devlin hasn't recognized himself. It's odd. I've come to like Trahern. He's been more a friend and a confidant for me. Given the nature of what I do, I don't really have a lot of friends. Rina Seligmann is in her late fifties, and more a surrogate mother to me. You're in England." Emily laughed. "And the truth is, I don't really have a great deal of time for friends."


"I know what you mean," Savannah agreed. "If it weren't for Reg and the children I'd be pretty much alone. I'm just barely involved in village life, but only because of him and the kids. And I don't really have any close women friends except you, and as you pointed out, we're an ocean apart. Well, that's the life of a successful writer, isn't it? We live for and are consumed by our work. It's a lonely business."

"But you manage to do it even married with children," Emily remarked, and then her eye caught a couple entering the room. The woman looked familiar. "Oh, my God!" she said, and forced herself not to stare.

"What is it?" Savannah wanted to know.

"Your husband just came in with a woman who looks suspiciously like Madame Rose," Emily said, her fingers fumbling for her teacup. "Thinner, but same face and blazing red hair."

"Oh, that's Gillian Brecknock," Savannah said casually. "Reg's little friend."

"She looks older than him," Emily observed from beneath lowered lashes.

"She's twelve years older, sweetie," Savannah replied with a small grin.

"Why does he do it? I can see he loves you and the kids," Emily said.

"Well, I wondered that myself," Savannah answered, "when I found out he was coming up to town to see her every now and again. He swore to me when we married that he had given her up, but as he obviously hadn't, I hired an investigator to find out for me what was going on. Gillian styles herself an actress, but she hasn't had a play in five years, and she hasn't done a film in eight. She needs to support herself, and Reg is just one of a number of friends she has who suffer from what I call naughty-boy syndrome. Gillian has become a dominatrix. It's all very discreet. A number of very prominent men go to her for what is referred to as correction. She's obviously very good at what she does. I was shopping here in town about a year ago and saw them together. That's when I got suspicious, but I suppose it's harmless, and I know Reg loves me, so I simply pretend I don't know, like the wives of all the other men for whom Gillian serves a purpose. However, she was Reg's girlfriend before she became what she is, which makes it a little different. He handles her investments, and now and again she calls him."

"And you manage not to kill her?" Emily said. "I'd be furious, not to mention jealous of a woman like that."

"Oh, I have my little ways of getting even just to remind her who's really in charge of Reginald Charles George Arthur Palmer," Savannah said as she popped a miniature lemon-curd tart into her mouth and ate it. "You'll see when we go out."

The two women finished their tea and prepared to leave for the airport. Savannah stood up. She smoothed her cream-and-beige tweed skirt and the cream cashmere turtleneck she was wearing, checked her lip gloss, and fluffed her shoulder-length ebony curls. Then, sliding from behind the table, she gave Emily a wink and charted their path to take them directly by the table where her husband and Gillian Brecknock were now seated. Emily followed, swallowing back the giggles bubbling up in her throat.

Savannah stopped directly in front of the table. She smiled brightly. "Darling! What a coincidence! Em and I had just finished our tea when I saw you. Gillian, what a surprise. You're well, I hope." She bent and air-kissed the woman as her husband stood up from his seat at the table.

"Very, darling," Gillian Brecknock replied in her plummiest tones. "You look wonderful for someone who lives in the country. I do adore tweed, but one just doesn't wear it in London these days."

"This is my best friend, Emilie Shann, the novelist," Savannah introduced her.

"Charmed, Miss Shann," Gillian Brecknock replied, offering Emily four limp fingers. "My mother adores your novels. When is the next one coming out here?"

Lord Palmer looked very uncomfortable, Emily noted, pleased. He should. He was such a pig. "Em really not certain," Emily answered the woman.

"Reg, my love," Savannah said brightly, "I've got the car, and I'm running Emily out to the airport. Are you coming home tonight? I can come back and pick you up. I have a wonderful surprise for you." She hesitated, and then continued. "Oh, I just can't wait for you to come home! I have to tell you now! We're expecting again!"

Lord Palmer grabbed Savannah and kissed her a lingering kiss. "What fantastic news!" he exclaimed. "Yes, I'll wait for you here at Claridge's, darling. Shall I book us a room for the night so we can celebrate?" he asked her.

"Oh, darling, what fun! That's brilliant," Savannah responded. "I'll come back to the hotel after I drop Emily. But no champagne for me now that I'm preggers again." She laughed. She gave her husband a kiss and, sliding from his embrace, smiled at Gillian Brecknock. "So good to see you, darling. Ta!"

"Good-bye, Miss Brecknock," Emily said. "My housekeeper just adores your old movies on the telly. So nice to have met you. When I tell Essie she'll be thrilled." And, turning, Emily followed Savannah from the restaurant.

They both burst into giggles as the hotel doorman signaled Lady Palmer's car, and they climbed into it.

"What are they serving in there, m'lady? Never thought tea was that funny," the family chauffeur asked, grinning in his mirror at the two women, who were caught in the throes of their laughter.

"Just a particularly silly jest, Jim," Lady Palmer answered, and she pressed the button that put up the privacy window between driver and passengers.

"That was fun!" Emily said.

"I know," Savannah replied. "It's almost too easy with Gillian. Is Essie really a fan of the bitch's?"

"Essie wouldn't know Gillian Brecknock if she fell over her," Emily responded, "but after that remark about her mother enjoying my books I couldn't resist having my revenge. Wait until Mama reads The Defiant Ducbesss." She giggled.

"I really am going to miss you," Savannah said.

"We'll always have e-mail," Emily teased her friend. "And the phone."

"Not the same, but it will have to do, I'm afraid," Savannah said.

"It's been the most wonderful week." Emily sighed. "But that manuscript is going to be in on time, and Merry Christmas to J. P. Woods. Devlin says the advertising and promotion are really spectacular. They have a whole bunch of interviews arranged for me. I can do the radio stuff at home, and we'll do a dozen or more on television from a studio in the city. It sounds really exciting."

"And you'll have Mick pitching the book hard," Savannah said. "Emily…" She hesitated, but then went on: "I don't want you to get hurt. You've done what you had to do to write this book. But if it doesn't go any further then you mustn't be heartbroken, sweetie. He's a great affair, or so the women I know who've been with him have said; but I'm not sure he's more than that. Oh, damn! I know you love him, but too often these things don't work out. You have to be prepared for it. And you don't want to lose him as an editor. He really is the best. I'm going to be working with him again. I could not tolerate old Pruny, and I called Martin. My manuscripts are going to New York now, and Mick will do them. They're published there anyway, and with the computer it's so easy now. Not like the bad old days." She put her arm around Emily. "You're going to be all right with this, aren't you?"

"Rina says he's in love with me," Emily said softly.

"Well, I have to admit I did see a difference in him when you were together," Savannah admitted, "but I just don't want you being blindsided and hurt if he does the usual Mick thing and goes off with some other woman."

"I'm not going to let him," Emily said quietly. "He's mine, and I'm not nearly as tolerant as you are, Sava. I'm not one of my early heroines. I'm every bit as tough as my defiant duchess. Devlin is mine, and I mean to keep him."


Chapter 9

Emily came through customs to find Michael Devlin waiting, and her heart skipped a beat. "You're supposed to be at work," she said to him as he kissed her mouth.

"I took the day off," he said with a grin. "Give me your bags. I'm taking you home, angel face. I called Rina yesterday and told her to cancel your car service."

"I'd much rather ride with you," Emily replied with a smile.

"How was the flight?" he asked.

"I slept most of it," she admitted. "Remember, I left at eight their time. Sava and I had tea at Claridge's, and then she took me to the airport. I bought you something at Harrod's. I hope you don't mind," Emily said. "It's just a sweater, but it had your name written all over it."

He helped her into the car. "You don't know my size," he said.

Emily laughed. "I've figured out all of your sizes by this point, Devlin," she teased him. "It's a sweater, for heaven's sake, not a pair of trousers or silk boxers. You don't have to take it, you know. I can give it to my oldest half brother for Christmas."

"I didn't say I didn't want it," he began.


"Oh, shut up and drive," Emily told him. "I've had it with traveling, and I want to go home. We've got two hours ahead of us, given the traffic. My flight was full of business people who want to get into the city for a full working day, and it's rush hour."